Newbury Brexit party candidate stands down

BREXIT party candidate David Jabbari will no longer run for the Newbury seat in the General Election.

The news comes after Brexit party leader Nigel Farage announced that he was withdrawing candidates in the 317 seats won by the Conservatives in 2017. 

As the Newbury seat was won by former Tory MP Richard Benyon, Mr Jabbari won't be competing against Newbury Conservative candidate Laura Farris.

In a tweet, Mr Jabbari urged the constituency to get behind Mrs Farris in the election - to be held on Thursday 12 December.

To all #Brexiteers in #Newbury this is of course a disappointing day but @Nigel_Farage has put country first. Let us work to ensure @Laura__Farris gets a thumping majority for the #Tories and let us #GetBrexitDone Our job now is to hold the #Tories feet to the fire. https://t.co/DsrQOkYQsL

— David Jabbari (@david_jabbari) November 11, 2019

Mr Jabbari was selected as the Brexit party candidate in September and said he wanted to offer a “democratic alternative” to the people of Newbury to deliver the result of the 2016 referendum.

At the time, Mr Jabbari said: “I have no political background. I was simply shocked by the desire of Parliament to subvert the referendum result and I consider this to be a very great threat to democracy.

"My greatest concern is that if the wishes of the 17.4m people are not listened to, many ordinary people will give up on the political process and will turn to movements which threaten democracy and freedom."